Managing Apologies

Hi Rob,

At this time ClubRunner's makeups (or apologies) are entered by the same person who can enter attendance. We've been hearing feedback from Clubs who are looking for a way for their members to submit these digitally and allow clubs some way to approve or manage them. But this is just in the discussion talks at this time, and not close to being available.

I'd love to hear others feedback on the subject!

 

Agreed it would be a vast improvement to allow members to enter their own information. It would save the already overloaded secretary much work.

We currently use two online forms to collect the information. One is intended for an individual and the other for a project leader to enter everyone who participated. The group one should present a checkable list of members for the person entering names. Ours does not and the misspellings and names submitted vary widely, sometimes unrecognizably. The forms should check to see if a person has been submitted already, e.g. after a project an individual submits their own form and later the project leader tries to do the same. I plan to rework our forms into a single form in the future and convert it to google forms.

The online form services used save all of the information in a spreadsheet which has been useful for historical documentation. In one case it helped us get a $1000.00 corporate donation.

Similarly, we have an online new member proposal form, and a new member information form, as well as a club inquiry form.
- The inquiry form is simple and intended for everything from "What's Rotary" to expressions of interest in joining. We get the majority of our new members from this.
- The membership proposal form is very much like the RI paper form of the same name and serves the same purpose.
- The new member information form is sent to individuals who have been approved and will be joining the club.

It really doesn't matter much if the inquiry form were integrated, it is pretty much standalone. Although it could be integrated with a subscribe button for the bulletin.

The new member proposal form should feed directly into a proposed member profile. Same for the new member information form. Converting the proposed member to active should remain separate.

Feel free to look at the forms we use on sp-ce-rotary.org. The makeup forms are buttons in the upper right. ANd the inquiry form is under membership. The "New member proposal" and "new member information" forms are under "members only".

 

Hi Scott,

Thanks for sharing your feedback about ClubRunner and about how your club is helping to manage apologies.

Letting members report their own makeups has come up often and it is something we're looking into for future updates.

Please do let us know if there are further suggestions, comments, or concerns!

 

Scott,

I visited your club's website, and I love your online forms for make-ups and for a New Member Proposal and a New Member information. Your overall website is also much better than my club's. Without asking you to do to much, could you point me in the right direction to start moving our forms to online. Did you use Google forms or what? Thank you for any help you can give. I am the new Executive Secretary of my club. We are only 3 years old, but already have over 100 members. Anything to make the processes more seamless would be a plus!

 

I used Email Me Form, which works fine, BUT, I will be switching over to Google Forms. At the time I started the forms, the formatting of Google Forms was pretty awful, Google has improved it since. Googe Forms provides results in an easy to reference spreadsheet, and to get that with Email Me Forms you need to pay. Email Me Forms is a nice setup but it doesn't have anything that warrants paying for a subscription.

When I switch over (when time permits...) I will probably combine the two make up forms. Having two has confused some members.

If this was integrated into Clubrunner there are some nice features that could be included that would really help. Way beyond what can be done with an external form.

 

Thank you, Scott. After looking at yours more closely I saw the email me form. I have created a draft of the member proposal and member information form in Google. I'm not ready to launch them yet, but I would be glad to share with you. I basically just took your questions and put them into Google. Let me know if you would like them. Are you the webmaster for your club? Your website is SO much better than ours. Ours is handled by someone else, but I'm going to dive into learning how Club Runner's works. My personal business website is wordpress. We need to really beef up
our club site.

 

I think our sites are different, I wouldn't say ours is better. Our site is a bit stagnant and needs updating. I am the webmaster but other commitments have left me with less time than needed. My club web sidekick has less time than I do.

I actually have the forms set up as well, it's other aspects that I need to complete. The current forms are set up to go to multiple people, I used to need to be implemented by use of Google groups, but it looks like the Form Notification add-on will do it now.

Our membership forms go to the Secretary, membership chair, newsletter editor (provides info for the intro in the bulletin), and the webmaster since that is generally who puts the person in. The makeup forms for the membership chair (as a gauge of activity) and the Secretary to enter the makeups.

Something I have found useful is to attend some of the web marketing presentations that can often be found around, sometimes for free. I've attended some run by Score and by the SBDC, and occasionally a local web marketing firm will do them as well. Tomorrow am I am attending a "Social Media Breakfast" which includes three presentations.

I use Wordpress for my business sites and a few other business sites I have set up. I would not use it for a Rotary club. I'm a District Web administrator as well, and I have had to help a few clubs with custom sites when the person who set it up moved or left Rotary. With a tool like Clubrunner, there is little fear that no one will be able to use it.

 

Has there been any progress on making it possible for members to record apologies on ClubRunner? That would be a very useful addition to the Attendance module.